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Well Today Was Quite the Day

Today started off just dandy…had to study for my Art History quiz. I woke up early, made some online flash cards and made a study guide. I got to my class, took the quiz, and then we had a field trip. We walked over to the other side of the river and went to Palazzo Pitti. Palazzo Pitti is now considered to be the largest museum complex in Florence, and is divided into several galleries. It used to be owned by Luca Pitta, a wealthy Florentine man. It was later bought by the Medici family who seem to have bought every piece of real estate in 16th century Florence.

The famous Boboli Garden is inside the palace. We got to see the garden from a window inside a palace. I’m going to go back to the garden when it gets warmer out and without my class. It was magnificent. The Palace was exquisite. It had an unbelievable collection of renaissance paintings. I’m talking hundreds. Oh yeah, and the Palazzo Pitti has the largest collection of paintings by Raphael, I think 12.

The paintings were huge and all had fantastic gold intricate frames and they covered the entire wall, floor to ceiling. Mom, you would have died. It was so over the top, fab. The decorated painting on the walls was fantastic too. The walls were painted so meticulously that they look carved or made out of stone or 3-dimensional gold, when in fact all the creations are flat and just illusions. These artists were talented back then…

We walked from room to room TRYING our hardest to snap pics. We got yelled at in every single room for taking a photo. You weren’t allowed to take any pictures at all, not even without flash. I snapped a bunch of pics, but some are not so good.

When class time was over, I walked back to the other side of the river to my classroom on Via de Faenza. I had my food and wine class. Today in class we learned the process of how wine is actually made and the regulations behind Italian wine making. We then made the meal: spinach and ricotta gnocchi paired with a white wine from Tuscany, meatloaf paired with a chianti red wine, and a chocolate cake. The gnocchi was sooo good. Let me know if you want the recipe, it was super easy and a hit.

Then I went back home and had to deal with Rome accommodation drama. I planned to go to Rome this weekend with my friends Sari and Katie. We were going to stay with our friend Matt in Rome, but he got evicted from his apartment this past weekend for noise complaints…so we had no where to stay. So I’ve been on a wild hunt trying to find somewhere close to my friend Dylan’s apartment, but everything is booked! Last night we found this great place, but then I called again this morning to book it, and it was already taken. So that was out of the picture. Finally, we found another place, but it was so stressful and took hours to find. Oh. And the best part was that the woman booking our reservation from the hotel on the phone didn’t speak english. So thanks to my very few Italian class lessons on numbers and simple vocabulary and a little google translation, we were able to book the hotel room for Friday and Saturday night. Katie, Sari, and I are all squishing into one room, so hopefully this all works out.

Oh wait, so when I got home from class and was researching places to stay, about 30 minutes into my search, our wifi went out. So I went over to Sari’s apartment and booked the hotel there. So after about an hour of being there, their power went out. Oh the joys of being abroad…

So I came back home and thankfully our wifi was back, as slow as ever. And it’s been going on and off. It sucks. I finished up some homework, and now I’m blogging. I am so exhausted though. This past weekend, I hardly slept and I have been waking up pretty early here and have late nights. Woof.

View of the Garden of Boboli

A table completely carved out of semi-precious stones. Unbelievable work put into this

Best and sneakiest way to snap pics here. Me and Sari

The walls are floor to ceiling covered in frames

These frames!!!!

This is a tondo doni which is a circular painting traditionally given to woman as a gift usually after they have given birth

dear Dolly,
i’m sure you remember me. I’m very happy you’re doing your own due diligence in the old old country.
Try to have a great time beside the wi-fi and everything else italian.
if you need anything from milano call me at 335 625 5184
all the best

alberto baccari

PS did you try il panino al lampredotto (typical from florence) at Nerbone in the Mercato centrale in-door